and house speaker john boehner who described his phone call with the president wednesday night as disappointing was not impressed by the white house proposal. >> no substantive progress has been made in the talks between the white house and the house over the last two weeks. right now all eyes are on the white house. the country doesn't need a victory lap. it needs leadership. it's time for the president and congressional democrats to tell the american people what spending cuts they're really willing to make. >> boehner then raised the stakes by throwing the debt ceiling into the mix, suggesting that any plans to raise the nation's borrowing limit would have to be matched by spending cuts in the fiscal cliff deal. >> as i told the president a couple weeks ago, there's a lot of things i've wanted in my life, but almost all of them had a price tag attached to them. i continue to believe that any increase in the debt limit has to be accompanied by spending reductions that meet or exceed it. >> asking that a political price be paid in order for congress to do its job to ensure that the united state